Union questions why Global Affairs issuing layoff warnings before policy review

OTTAWA — Thousands of employees at Global Affairs Canada have been issued notices warning they may lose their jobs, months before a foreign policy review is completed to give the department updated priorities.

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said the department has the broad outlines of Canada’s foreign policy which can shape staffing priorities, but the diplomats union says the cuts at Global Affairs Canada are premature.

“I just don’t understand why we’re cutting without defining what it is that we want to do and what we need,” said Pam Isfeld, a career diplomat and president of the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers. “I just don’t understand why you would not build the organization that you want once you’ve defined your priorities.”

Isfeld said about a third of her union’s total membership — about 700 people — have received the notices. Another 1,172 notices went to GAC employees with the Public Service Alliance of Canada, 477 notices to members of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, and 746 were sent to GAC members of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees.

Last Friday, Global Affairs Canada said it must trim its workforce 12 to 13 per cent by 2030 in order to achieve a $1.12 billion budget cut.

“GAC is making every effort to maximize voluntary departures by sending affected letters to many more employees than the target number of positions to be eliminated,” wrote spokesman John Babcock.

Isfeld said all employees in her union who have received notices of a potential layoff have “a lot of experience” as the two lowest ranks of foreign service officers aren’t subject to the exercise.

“It still remains to be seen exactly how that will translate,” Isfeld said, adding she hopes to receive more clarity on both the government’s priorities and which areas will see job cuts.

“This is causing quite a lot of uncertainty and angst among our members,” she said.

Isfeld said notices were sent to employees both working at headquarters and in missions abroad.

In a wide-ranging interview Monday with The Canadian Press, Anand said the government will issue a foreign policy document in 2026 based on trade diversification, people-to-people ties and economic security.

“The work that we are doing is based on that frame — and will continue to be executed with the domestic population in mind,” said Anand. “We must not for a moment forget that our foreign policy is tied to the robustness of the domestic economy.”

The plan, she said, is for Ottawa to issue its national-security strategy this year, which will contain “individual pillars that relevant ministers will be responsible for.” From there, Global Affairs Canada will launch its own foreign-policy review using the themes outlined in the broader strategy.

Officials briefing reporters ahead of Carney’s trip to China, Qatar and Switzerland this month said that the national-security strategy will likely come before this summer.

Anand did not say what the foreign-policy review will entail, but these exercises generally touch on which regions and nations will see an increase in diplomatic postings, which missions might close or merge with others, and what themes or languages the foreign service aims to focus on.

Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged during the election campaign to restore Canada’s diplomatic presence abroad through a “new, full foreign policy.”

His platform said the last time Canada issued a full foreign policy was in 2005 and that “the world is immensely different today than it was then.”

“The intention is to deploy more Canadian diplomats and officials abroad, to expand our trade, and to restore Canadian leadership,” said the platform.

Isfeld said she questions whether this is the time to make cuts at the department, given the prime minister’s recent Davos speech highlighting Canada as a “global leader” and his ambitious international trade and economic agenda.

“That’s going to call for more diplomacy and more skill, more experience, more judgment, more networks, both informal and formal, more discussions,” Isfeld said. “That’s more work for diplomats and for experienced people, not less, so it’s a bit disturbing.”

The department is already undergoing a rethink of its function through an initiative that focuses on workflow and staffing, instead of actual foreign policy.

That existing review has touched on matters like the appropriate balance of time diplomats are posted abroad or working in Canada, and how the foreign service integrates Canadians fluent in Asian languages but not French.

In last November’s budget, the Carney government redirected diplomatic dollars to the trade file, cutting back foreign aid while suggesting Ottawa consolidate its foreign-service footprint abroad.

The budget also called for revamping consular support, after a steady increase in Canadians requiring help fleeing hot spots like Haiti, Lebanon or Sudan due to rising conflict worldwide.

Anand suggested the foreign-policy review will touch on this increasingly chaotic period.

“The times in which we are living now are unlike anything we have seen before. The geopolitical environment is one which is seeing multiple conflicts around the world. The global trading order has been upended and the impact on the domestic economy is conspicuous and worrisome,” she said.

Anand says she’s closely watching the downsizing, as someone who once oversaw the entire public service in her former role as Treasury Board president.

“I’m very, very sensitive to the concerns of our public servants and especially from a GAC perspective,” she said. “We’re all human and we’re trying to support our families, and I never forget that.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 28, 2025.

Dylan Robertson and Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press